December 23, 2007

I was a little surprised to find that the setup to this volume was almost exactly the same as the last one. Good thing volume 3 was fantastic, or I would be really disappointed instead of just a little sad. At the beginning, Perverto and his friends are prepared to pay a random girl to have sex with them. You worry that this is going to turn into a really uncomfortable situation really fast (Perverto is the one nominated to do the deed while the others hide in the bathroom and watch), but Perverto finds the nice in the girl who shows up to be paid for sex, and a lot of the rest of the book is Perverto sticking up for this girl. It’s still a really good formula, and a lot of what Perverto says rings quite true, unlike most manga sermons.

On the Hongdan front, the teacher spills his guts to her, and that situation turns out to be not as explosive as you would have thought. I… didn’t quite understand what was going on there, actually.

I was almost disappointed, because Perverto starts dating another girl and he and Hongdan don’t actually hook up. Actually, it’s got an almost “Flowers and Bees” type ending. The comparison is not quite accurate, but they remind me of each other, at least, and I would say this series is very similar to that one in many ways. I thought the ending fit, in any case, and I liked the way all the final wrapups were done.

This series was quite good. The basic premise, the main character’s name, and the disturbing title page images all point to it being a really crappy shounen romantic comedy, but it’s actually more of a drama, and the story and characters become surprisingly well-developed and a lot of what happens, as I said earlier, rings surprisingly true. I wouldn’t call it a gem of mondern manga (or manhwa, whatever), but it’s certainly worth a read, and it would be a recommendation I wouldn’t hesitate to give for anyone who really enjoys romance stories. There’s a lot of gems at Netcomics.

July 14, 2007

This is such a wonderful series, I never would have guessed it got this good after reading the first volume. Though I liked the second volume a lot, I was afraid the series would dip back into the comedy territory from volume one and I just wouldn’t like it as much. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this was just… amazing.

The volume starts off in rape territory. The reason I was concerned about this reverting back into a comedy was because the main character had sworn back on the ways of the pervert at the end of the last volume, and I was worried that things would stray. The pervert business continues while he and a friend stalk one of the most popular girls in school and hold her against her will in a stairwell. This is a really long scene that ends with the main character totally pulling off a cool guy act as he teaches the bitchy girl a lesson (no rape occurs, thankfully, though things get close).

Most of the rest of the volume features the various misdeeds of the handsome young teacher who is toying with all the girls in school, but trying to get together with Hongdan most of all. He’s a big sleaze, and I think people other than the main character are starting to come around to realize this.

One of the coolest scenes in the volume is when some boys come to Hongdan’s school to try and beat her up. They bully a kid to run and get her for them, except they can’t think of any description other than “breasts like a dairy cow.” This understandably leads to some confusion.

Things are going to wrap up next volume, and I have every confidence that it will be fantastic. This series really wound up surprising me.

May 6, 2007

Yay! I liked this volume a lot better than the previous one. Rather than driving home the point that the two main characters want to reinvent themselves at their new school with tired jokes, the characters are put into a variety of situations where they have to consciously make an effort to act differently than they normally would. This volume mostly focuses on Perverto’s girlfriend and the war she seems to be waging with herself to be more feminine, and I really liked it. There is a math teacher that is trying to… pick her up, to put it nicely, and my favorite scene in the book is where she has a verbal showdown with him.

The end of the book worries me. Perverto is driven away when he thinks that he is being used, and the next volume seems to be about him falling in with the wrong crowd. I think the word “pervert” puts me off quite a bit not only because of the obvious joke, but I think because what Perverto seems to be moving into next volume stops being perverted and starts to be more sinister and criminal, and I guess I just want a different word to be used. And I just hate that joke.

I’m not really looking forward to the next volume, but I actually liked this one quite a bit.

January 27, 2007

Oh God, I should have known better than this. The description on the book made it sound like the main character wasn’t actually pervy but got accused of these things all the time. The fact that his name was “Perverto” didn’t tip me off to the fact that I wouldn’t like this series. This is an instance where reading the free preview on Netcomics would’ve saved me money, but I hate reading manga on my computer.

Let me tell you that the main character actually is some sort of pervert. Not the dirty old man kind, just a dirty-minded high school boy. Nothing wrong with that unless you’re the kind of manga (or manhwa) cast that overreacts to every little thing. Apparently his parents had to move because he was labeled “pervert” at his old school. His name has nothing to do with this, I suppose. Stupid jokes and stupid characters for the first half of the volume.

This one almost got thrown in the trash, but the second half of the volume actually kind of redeemed it. The one who mainly made pervert jokes wound up being the main love interest. She softened up a bit later on in the series, and both she and Perverto were attracted to each other. Her problem was that she’s got a best friend who she was kind of going out with, and the best friend refuses to be broken up with. So Perverto then has to deal with the jealous friend. The girl actually wound up being developed quite a bit by the end of the volume, and though she’s still not that great a character, there’s at least a shred of hope this series will turn out okay. It’ll depend on the next volume really, but it’s only four volums long, so if it winds up being good, it should be able to wrap itself up pretty well and be a nice little story.

8/1/2015

And in observance of another, unofficial holiday... August 1st is the only day that I do a full update with just BL books. This was a good excuse to get a bunch out of my update queue. Some of these went back to April.

Among them are the beginnings of my obsession with Junjo Romantica, and reviews for all four Kou Yoneda volumes in English. If you haven't picked up Twittering Birds Never Fly, you may want to, if you are so inclined. It is beautiful and tragic, and among the best BL I've read.

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